Hearts in Hollywood

I am very grateful to be a member of the Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop family and thankful for each teacher and fellow actor I have worked with or seen work. You inspire me and I am blessed to be in your company.

Conventional wisdom informs us that Hollywood is a cold cynical hell, a place where creative talent, dreams and passion fuel an industry that embraces a lucky few, while using and abusing the rest; a factory producing magnificent dreams while cannibalizing the dreamers. History is replete with stories supporting this view and the entertainment industry markets heavily to counter it by touting the philanthropic largess of its luckiest denizens. The culture as a whole eats up this narrative with an endless appetite, devouring a non-stop barrage of stories about the triumphs and tragedies of the gods, goddesses and villains of Hollywood. This narrative has remained unchanged if not amplified since my first stint here began some 30 years ago.

From the perspective of an unrepentant dreamer who has recently picked up his dreams and dusted them off after closeting them for 20 years working in the corporate software world, Hollywood reflects the changes seen in our world as a whole.

The rich have gotten richer and the rest poorer. There are more dreamers than ever, arriving daily from all over the world. The dollars of young aspirants are still willingly received by the myriad of companies who thrive on the development of talent.

Unions have consolidated and lost their power leaving an even smaller percentage of their members making a livelihood in the careers they love.  Low paying non-union acting work thrives while the union actor is asked to work for next to nothing under something called the “Ultra-Low Budget” contract.

Technology has been a double-edged sword wreaking havoc with the Hollywood film industry. Production has moved elsewhere because it can. Jobs have disappeared, as entire parts of the industry have been rendered obsolete. At the same time technological advances have expanded the creative toolsets of the filmmaker, freeing them from the bulky constraints of heavy cameras and lights and allowing them to create new worlds from nothing but pure imagination.

While outlets for content have exploded dramatically, there are seemingly fewer paying jobs to meet the demand. Fewer movies being made at the top of the feeding chain have driven movie stars to become television stars and everyone else climbing the ladder to move down a rung in turn. But, the dreams haven’t died and there are still charlatans posing as agents, teachers, managers and coaches willing to capitalize on the dreams of the dreamers.

There are also extraordinarily talented people everywhere you look: actors, writers, directors, producers and teachers. This is after all one of the primary beacons of light for creative artists worldwide.

One of the brightest lights in Hollywood today is hyphenate, acting coach-writer- producer-director Anthony Meindl.  His book  “At Right Brain, Turn Left” published in January 2012 quickly rose to be in the top 100 best selling self-help books and top 50 books about theatre on Amazon. In it he focuses on bringing out the creative artist in all of us regardless of profession.

His eponymous acting studio, Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop (AMAW), is a successfully growing business with studio’s opening in London, Vancouver and New York City.  His team has utilized social media masterfully in launching his book and expanding awareness of his brand. A videographer is never far away when Tony speaks. Short videos are very effectively used to build awareness, and what you see, is what you get.

Real Life Teachers: Cuz School ain't Real Life?

Teachers in the real world, the “grown-up” world show up in my experience serendipitously. I've found them ( or vice versa ) every where I've been, and I've been in a few different places and industries. Having pursued an acting career for the first decade I was out of college, I had a myriad of acting coaches, many of whom were certain they were angels, if not prophets. As intimate as an actor to coach relationship can be – it was all about the business with most of them.

While I was pursuing acting in Los Angeles in the last century, I was working in temporary positions and had the privilege of meeting a Controller at Colwell Mortgage, named Bert. Bert hired me because I could remember what was on top of my dresser in my bedroom during the interview. He apparently thought that proved I could pay attention to detail. In the ensuing year he taught me how to reconcile giant cash accounts to the penny. He also gave me the opportunity to work with the system design group implementing new accounting software on the mainframes that were starting to be used at the time. I received a crash course in the foundations of accounting that allowed me to work and feed myself and my family for many years. Thank you Bert.

Professors are Teachers Two

COLLEGE

Lawrence University held a cacophony of angels for me. After the initial exhilaration of being able to choose what I wanted to study, college became a continual lesson in politics for me, personal and public. What I recognize now, is that one of the things that make small liberal arts colleges so dynamic is the constant clashing of ego's; those newly forming ( students ) and those so strongly built ( professors ) that heated, passionate argument, debate and discussions are never ending. It was quite a shock to me.

What I see now, but couldn't then, was that because a University is traditionally a place ruled by intellect and demonstrable accomplishment. Ego's rule the roost. Professors must “publish or perish” to be rewarded with tenure or continued employment. Students obviously must perform to make the grade. Pretty “heady stuff”, literally. In light of this intense focus on the intellect , the heart and soul, while studied intellectually are rarely unleashed or honored. There were some notable exceptions to that rule at Lawrence for me.

Teachers in School

Angels are sometimes teachers, and teachers, particularly high school teachers are all angels in my book. Have you ever met the people who go to high school? Individually, like my daughter, they are quite spectacularly lovable, but when they congregate? Yikes! It takes angels to herd them, let alone teach them. So here is a hats off to every teacher I've ever met, hated or loved.